At home dehydrator

As we took our bikes to explore a little town called Xingping right outside Yangshuo, I kept seeing these massive patches of zucchini drying all over the place. I do not know what it is for, but everyone was doing it!

The town itself was fantastic! Way off the tourist track, true Chinese countryside views, great little street stalls for food and crafts, and one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in. The food, the people, the sights and adventure was quite satisfying. 

Plucking dinner

Xingping

China

Yangshuo: the most beautiful place on earth

Yangshuo is beautiful enough to be on the 20 Yuan bill! I have never seen mountain ranges like these in all my life. It definitely is worth going if you are in the Guangxi province. This is the place with the market for dogs, and where they host a night show by the same director who did the opening ceremony of the 2008 olympics (Impressions of Liu Sanjie). 

I also took a wonderful cooking class, so recipes will be posted shortly!

Same spot for the 20 bill

Beef stir fry

Good, not the best!

Yangshuo

China

Best drink in Asia

If you love milk and peanut butter, you will absolutely LOVE this!

My Korean friend introduced me to it, and I am so sad it does not exist in America.

It is basically a very rich peanut milk, that is not too sweet, and fantastic for a hot day.

If you ever find it, tell me!

China

Cow head + tongue anyone?

This was definitely a please stop the car moment.

I have never seen someone whack a skinned cows head down the middle with a giant axe before. 

Good times . . .

Yuanyang

China

Morning Buns

I have 2 words for these buns:   baking soda

So fresh, so fluffy, and even a big line up before the little stall even opened... but all I could taste, was baking soda.

Thankfully it was about 25 cents each!

 Mission Buns, accomplished

Yuanyang

China

Life down in Yuanyang, rice terrace heaven

Ten hours by bus south of central Yunnan province is this amazing rice terrace heaven, Yuanyang. Too bad we went when the rice crops were starting to grow again, and not getting the full effect of water filled terraces. A local photographer said the best time for pictures is the winter. I highly recommend google searching yuanyang rice terraces!

Either way, it was such a beautiful place, filled with everyone BUT tourists. It was a perfect place to experience the culture of the Yunnan people. 

The men sit and smoke at tobacco booths, while the women work, work and work!

Dress of women in Yunnan

Image these were all filled with water and not green crops!

Yuanyang

China

Wu Wei Su Kung Fu Training

To use one of my 5 weeks in China to learn Kung Fu in a monastery, up in the mountains in the middle of no where?

The real question is: Why not??

Through word of mouth, I heard about Wu Wei Su, and I had no idea what to expect... 

It was simply amazing. 

We trained 6 hours every day, ate strictly vegan food, tea and water. Modest dressing, and 9pm curfew. As soon as dinner is over, trust me, you want to sleep! The sore pains only got worse and never better. 

There was no electricity, yet these old style stone rooms kept cool in the day and gave off the heat at night to keep you warm. 

The monks were very strict on no photos, so one had to be quite sneaky!

Schedule

5am - woken up by gongs and chanting right outside your door

6:45am - morning run down the stone paths, then find a large rock and carry it back to the monastery.

8am: Breakfast, alternating every day between noodle soup, or baozi buns and rice porridge. The buns... had this magical sweet peanut filling...heavenly. 

9-12am - morning training. Around 1.5 hours of stretching, then 1.5 hours kung fu

12pm - lunch timeee YES!

1-4pm - free afternoon time. It was optional to stick around and help the teachers practice and learn english. Especially the young boys, who yes, could kick any of your asses. 

4-6pm more training / practice set routine

6pm - dinner

9pm - lights out. And out we were... Especially if you did not have candles!

 Entrance

 Ginger and I's room

 Yep! the toilet! goodbye privacy ladies

 training area

 Coming back with the stones, choosing your spot to set it down

 Morning 9am stretch

 Kung Fu time

Routine time

FOOD RULES:

1. don't leave 1 grain of rice left in your bowl.

2. When you are eating out of your bowl, it must be in your hand and off the table

3. use table chop sticks to pick food 

4. no talking

5. Must walk up to each table saying 'aaaaaami tofu' with hands in prayer form and bow, before leaving the dining room

6. wash and keep your bowl + chopsticks for all meals

7. if you don't know how to use chop sticks, your screwed

 Morning Baozi bun with rice porridge

Noodle soup every other morning

 lunch or dinner kind of food

The food was absolutely amazing, included lots of pumpkin, tofu, greens, corn, eggplant, beans, etc. 

Filling, scrumptious, and always served with rice. 

Dali

China

Mmm.. Chicken feet

Cartilage shaped like a foot? 

no thanks

Lijiang street food in the city centre

Lijiang hot pot

Or chicken feet to go at the corner store

Lijiang

China

Naxi bread 2 ways

My second day in Lijiang, I started to notice this bread that people were eating more and more. I couldn't find it in the city touristy centre, so after hitting up some back alleys, I found a little woman with her hot pan and batch of dough.    Bingo!

Its fluffy, perfectly seasoned, and everything you could want for bread texture. You can get it as a sandwich or with some chilli/sour sauce on top.

It's like.. Chinese Nan bread

The Naxi sandwich

The menu explanation

The Naxi to go

Lijiang 

China

Lijiang

Lijiang is the next major stop north of Dali (about 3 hours drive), as travellers work their way up into Tibet. 

I loved the this place for the tiny, maze-like cobble stone roads with chinese style houses. It was pretty touristy in the center, but escaping outside allowed one to find some good eats and cafes. 

This one dish bellow was made of soybean pasta, stuffed with vegetables and some ground beef with chili.

It was tasty, but fell apart too easily. Not so chopstick friendly.

Looks pretty, not the most phenomenal taste. Rice ball with a bean centre. 

http://www.tannah.net/bryan/

Lijiang

China